6/25/14 Let’s call it Wednesday

So the NBA draft is tomorrow (Thursday) and the Cleveland Cavaliers have the 1st pick. It looked like a lock that the Cavaliers would take Joel Embid a 7 (seven) foot center out of Kansas. Of course Embid broke a foot and required surgery that will keep him out anywhere between 3 (three) to 6 (six) weeks and one doctor said it might be better for him to miss the entire 2015-16 season. Cleveland appears to have moved on from Embid and has it’s choice of Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker the top two (2) players in this draft now. There was a statement attributed to Parker that said if given the choice he’d prefer to play for the Milwaukee Bucks rather than the Cavaliers. Milwaukee has the 2nd pick in the draft and should take the player not taken #1 be it Wiggins or Parker. In the last couple of days there have been some trade rumors involving the #1 pick. The Orlando Magic and the Boston Celtics have been two (2) of the teams mentioned in trying to deal for the 1st pick. Both teams have to fairly earlier 1st round picks. Orlando has pick #4 and pick #12; plus it’s been reported they’d include Aaron Afflalo. The Celtics have pick #6 and pick #17, but don’t really have a player the quality of Afflalo to include in there deal. So it’s possible Cleveland takes one of these deals and still selects Embid in the 1st round where there won’t be such an uproar by Cavalier fans. They’d also have a second 1st round pick to get a player who’s healthy to start training camp. I think Cleveland will go with one of these trade offers and move down in the draft. The team that may turn out to be the biggest loser in this draft is the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers pretty much tanked all of last season to have the chance to get Wiggins and it looked like the plan would work until Embid got injured. It seemed like Wiggins would be sitting their at #3, but now it looks more and more like Wiggins will go #1 overall to Cleveland or to a team that trades into that spot and then Parker will go #2 to Milwaukee. There is always the chance that these players will flip-flop with Parker at #1 and Wiggins coming off the draft board at #2. Either way Philadelphia loses out on a player projected to have a very good NBA future. I’ve seen some mock drafts that have the 76ers taking Embid, but if you remember they selected Nerlens Noel with their 1st round selection last season. Noel sat out the entire season with an injury, but he plays the same position as Embid. Would the 76ers double up at the center position? in back to back drafts. Besides the top three (3) guys in this draft there are some interesting players that will be drafted tomorrow. Dante Exum is a guard out of Australia who’s been compared to Russell Westbrook and Kobe Bryant. Exum is 19 years old and their may be some growing pains for the team that takes him, but he’s a top 5 pick in this draft. Noah Vonleh is another player who has made some big jumps up draft boards after the college season has ended. Vonleh played one (1) year at the University of Indiana and is a solid rebounder with a nice outside shot for a player his size. There are so many guys that I could go over that will be drafted that I don’t want to end up giving you another mock draft to read. A couple of players I’ll be interested to see where they get picked are Marcus Smart and Doug McDermott. Smart is listed as a point guard, but I’m not sure if he’ll play that position in the NBA. Of course at 6’3 it would be a good spot for him. McDermott can shoot the basketball and will fit into the right system. The biggest issue he might have in the NBA will be getting his own shot, but like I said in the right system he’ll be able to score. I’d look for the foreign players after Exum to start coming off the draft board in the 20’s. Dario Saric from Croatia, Clint Capela from Switzerland, Bogdan Bogdanovic from Serbia and 7’3 center Walter Tavares from Cape Verde are four (4) of these players. What does your favorite team need in this draft? Is your team in a position to draft that player?

The NBA draft is a little easier for me to watch. It’s just two (2) rounds and the clock is shorter than an NFL draft type of deal. Will you be watching?